Week 21: In Which I Can't Seem to Make it to the Store

Recipes to Go: 507 300

Weeks to Go: 52 31

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Soup

Ham and Cheese Sandwich Loaf

Mashed Potato 'n' Parsnip

Tomato 'n' Corn Risotto

Spaghetti Squash Supreme

Carrots and Pearl Onions

Cherry Chocolate Bark

Chunky Fruit 'n' Nut Fudge

Jumbo Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

Tastes Like Thanksgiving Casserole

Monday I was planning to go to the store, but after unpacking and cleaning up, it didn't seem to happen, so I put together the Southwestern Soup with things I had on hand. It was pretty typical for a southwestern soup. Which means we loved it.

I managed to make it to the local grocery store on Tuesday to pick up the necessities, but I still didn't even have a menu planned for the week. Luckily, I remembered that there was another tasty sandwich recipes, so I picked up a loaf of Italian bread.

On Wednesday, I made the Ham and Cheese Sandwich Loaf and the Mashed Potatoes 'n' Parsnip.

I used a leftover sweet potato and red potatoes to make the mashed potatoes. It was sweet and fillings. So was the sandwich. We have all become fans of the hollowed, stuffed and baked sandwiches.

Thursday rolled around, and I still hadn't gone to the store, so I put together the Tomato and Corn Risotto. I used Orzo pasta instead of Arborito rice. It took a long time to coax it into absorbing the liquid, and I didn't get all of it in, but it was still ridiculously good. This was another recipe we argued over for the leftovers.

Friday came and I got my act together and drove the 30 minutes to the decent grocery store in my area. As a result, we had Spaghetti Squash Supreme on Friday with Carrots and Pearl Onions. Spaghetti squash was so easy to cut and carve. I was expecting something as hard as the butternut squash and pumpkin, but it only had a thin skin.

The casserole was more watery than I was expecting and needed a little salt. It was good, but not my favorite recipe so far.

The carrots and pearl onions were tasty. That was probably because there was bacon in it. And we all know, bacon makes things tasty. That's why it's a major taste vitamin.

Unfortunately, the only pearl onions I could find were pickled, so there was a strong vinegar flavor to the whole dish. The Husband enjoyed this, The Captain did not. He did eat the carrots, though which was huge for him. I would love to try this again with non-pickled pearl onions.

I made fudge and Cherry Chocolate Bark for Game Night on Friday. I've never made fudge before. I don't normally like it with nuts, to say nothing of fruit, but I liked this a lot. I did get worried making it that I was going to cook it too long, or that it was never going to set, but it did. And it was lovely. And it made a huge amount, so I gave half of it away on Game Night. Our friends who came over had family coming the next day and I was happy to help them out with there dessert needs.

I was unable to find cherry extract in the store, but I did find peppermint, so that substitution was a good decision. I am pretty much in love with peppermint. I'll take it over cherry any day. This bark was also a first for me, and the base layer set up too fast for me to do a good marbling effect on the top. I've never been good at marbling. I'm not sure how much more practice I'll get in this book, but I'll try to keep working on it after this year. Because I think you eat with your eyes first and it's important to have pretty looking desserts.

Saturday morning, I made the Pumpkin Muffins. I don't have giant muffin tins, so they were just regular sized. They weren't too memorable, but they made a good breakfast for the next week.

The Tastes like Thanksgiving Casserole was delicious. I used chicken instead of turkey, so it didn't really really taste like Thanksgiving, however it was delicious.

The Captain loved it, and we ate it for days.

Week 20: Happy Thanksgiving

Recipes to Go: 507 310

Weeks to Go: 52 32

Recipes Made This Week

Turkey Enchiladas

Apple & Herb Roasted Turkey

Double Corn Dressing

Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Texas Pecan Pie

Simple Lemon Pie

Eggnog Pumpkin Pie

I included the Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast recipes in the count this week, so you don't start questioning my math skills.

We were lucky enough this year to be close enough to family to spend the holiday with them. It was still a 6 hour drive, and The Husband didn't have any days before Thanksgiving off, so we left in time to make it late Wednesday night. For me this meant that I wanted to have all my recipes made before we left. So rather than getting to relax after the feast, I charged ahead making pies and enchiladas.

Actually, I made those Tuesday so we could have a nice dinner before we left. And lucky me, it made a ton, so we stuck them in the fridge and voila! dinner was waiting for us when we arrived home at dinnertime on Sunday. It was marvelous. And the dinner was great, too.

So I made pies and pies on Tuesday. I didn't eat much of the pumpkin pie. I tried it, but it wasn't nearly as amazing as the streusel-topped one from our feast, so it mostly sat around feeling sorry for itself.

The pecan was really good. I'm glad I didn't use all 2 cups of corn syrup. I was planning on it, but I only ended up with 1/2 cup of light. And I figured there was enough other sugar in it that no one would notice. And no one did. In fact, I would venture to say that the missing half cup contributed to its success. Pecan pie is normally so sweet and rich that it's hard to eat a lot of it. This was wasn't as bad, so it was gobbled up.

The lemon pie was my favorite. And it was disgustingly simple. Plus it was from the Eating Lighter section, so it wasn't stuffed with sugar like most pies. I found the light lemon flavor and the light texture of this pie was exactly what I craved after all the heavy Thanksgiving food. So I ate most of this pie.

The stuffing was nice because it was pretty easy as well, and despite my normal ambivalence towards stuffing, I was drawn to this again and again because it had really good flavor. Plus, because it called for red and green peppers it was very colorful and looked great on the plate.

This turkey was much more successful as far as appearance went. And we got enough drippings to make gravy. It was very tasty, but I didn't notice a huge difference between it and other turkeys I've had.

The mashed potatoes were great, probably because I used Alton Brown's method rather than the recipe's. And despite the fact that I don't really like rosemary, I loved these. Go figure.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was in a turkey comma all weekend. So here are some pictures from my niece who stole my camera instead. I call this series "The Bag"

Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast

Our 5th annual Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast was a huge success. Every year I get a little stressed out with planning and executing and feeling like I'm the only one who cares, and I wonder why I do this every year. Then people come and we have a great time, and I think everything is worth it.

This year, due partially to my growing experience in planning weekly menus and partially due to luck, I managed not only to make 10 recipes for an early dinner (for us, it was 4 this year instead of 6), but to keep the kitchen in pristine condition. That has never happened before.

Recipes Made for Today

Grilled Apple-Brined Turkey

Mango Cranberry Sauce

Bubbly Cranberry Punch

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Ginger-Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Lemonade Meringue Pie

Festive Cranberry Topped Cheesecake

Everything was done with plenty of time, except the turkey. It just always takes longer than I think it will, and we had a function that night, which was why we had dinner early, and we stuck it in right after church, which was done at noon, so it had as much time as we could give it. We carved the breast and stuck it back in the oven. After cleaning it all up, we realized that it actually probably didn't need the extra time. It had been marinating for a day and a half and was just super moist. So moist in fact, that we had no drippings for gravy. It just held on to every bit of moisture. Which is what made it so delicious. We didn't get to grill it, but we are planning on getting a grill, so maybe next year. This was worth not having any room in my fridge for two days.

The Pilgrim Hat Cookies were too cute and easy not to use for table decorations. We put them on the roll plate along with an autumn leaf we collected back in September. We pressed them in a book and wrote people's names on them for place cards. It was cute, but I need a thicker sharpie and note for next year, yellow leaves are easier to read than red. Though they made nice table decorations.

The cranberry punch was amazing. I think that got the most comments that were consistently good. And it was super easy. Those two things (the punch and the cookies) were just about the only things I had to make on Sunday. And I will probably be using these again and again as well.

As you can see the food spread was pretty amazing.

Everyone was so generous with their offerings, and between nice guests and my husband I think I only did 3 dishes.

Here's a close up:

This one has my pies in it.

I think the pumpkin pie I made might be the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. And the cheesecake was also amazing. I loved the cranberry topping and it was an extra creamy cheesecake because The Husband was doing the grocery run for me on Saturday when I was making all the pies, and I ran out of eggs before he got back, so I just let the Kitchenaid keep creaming until he got back. It was only 10 minutes or so, but it made a big difference. The lemonade meringue was a dismal failure, but the other two made up for it, I think. Plus, The Husband made his Banana Cream, so there was plenty of pie.

So in addition to the 7 recipes from the book, I also made my corn bread sausage stuffing, which I learned is a very Southern tradition. Everyone was impressed that I knew about corn bread stuffing, but thanks to the internet, I've been a fan for awhile. I'm glad I can pass off as Southern occasionally.

I also made sweet potatoes in the slow cooker, and my Grandma's fruit salad, which is the dish that holds the most Thanksgiving memories for me.

Well, we had the most people over that we've ever had. Next year we'll have to get more chairs. And everyone enjoyed themselves, including The Captain who got to have 2 cups of punch. Ask him if he's happy about that.

Week 19: Ready for Thanksgiving

Recipes to Go: 507 324

Weeks to Go: 52 33

Recipes Made This Week

Cowboy Beef Dip

Bavarian Pork Loin

Fiesta Chicken Chowder

No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip

Savory Pumpkin Ravioli

Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread

Mexicorn Grits

The Cowboy Beef Dip was very good and very spicy. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find mexicorn, luckily I have the internet on my phone, so I could Google image search for it in the store and find the equivalent store brand. Handy, since I needed it not only for this recipe, but for the Mexicorn Grits on Saturday. While this was fine as a main dish, but I probably should have made something else, because I think it makes a much better side dish.

I needed to use the rest of the sauerkraut in my fridge, so I made the Bavarian Pork Loin. The pork was nothing spectacular, in fact, it was a little dry, but the rest of the stuff in the slow cooker was amazing.

The apples, especially. I couldn't get The Captain to eat them, though. He wouldn't believe that they were apples. It took all week to get him to try them, then he loved them as much as we did.

The Fiesta Chicken Chowder was good, a fairly typical southwest soup. But it gave me the opportunity to use the rest of my brown rice. I don't normally buy brown rice, being a jasmine rice eater myself, so it was nice to not have leftovers.

I don't normally think to add rice to my soups, maybe this will help me remember. This soup was very spicy, which means The Captain really liked it. It stored really well in the fridge, except for the chicken, which got a little chewy, sadly.

The No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip was good, but again, I should have made something else, too. While The Captain was happy to eat nothing but condiments and a little chicken, I missed something else to eat. And I found out that The Husband doesn't like blue cheese, which was a big flavor aspect of the dip.

So, I finally found a baking pumpkin, and again, I was supposed to peel and cube it. Well, after pretty much the same routine--cooking it, only to puree it, I will next time just cook it in the oven. So this was the first time I've ever made my own pasta. I was really worried since I don't have any pasta making equipment or attachments for my Kitchenaid. But the dough was really easy to work with and really easy to roll out. Overall, I was quite impressed with myself. Although, the stuffing needed a little more salt, and I overcooked the pasta a little. Also, because it looked different, I couldn't get The Captain to try it. And he's normally such a fan of pasta . . .

The Rustic Fruit Tart was divine. It really did taste autumny with apples and pears and pumpkin pie spices.

The dough had cream cheese in it, so you know that was good. It turned out beautifully. And because no one came to Game Night again, we got to enjoy it all.

Saturday morning we made Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread . . . without the nuts. It was delicious, but one loaf fell, and the other loaf fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

We still enjoyed it for breakfast all week long. I will definitely try this one again. The crust was so nice.

For dinner that night, I made the Mexicorn Grits. I've never tried grits before.

They were a lot like cous-cous. The Captain really liked them. Other then the excessive butter used (I will more than half that next time) it was delicious, and was possibly better as leftovers.

The best thing was that I got to make all of this and still make the stuff for a hugely successful Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast.

Week 18: Squashed

Recipes to Go: 507 332

Weeks to Go: 52 34

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Turkey Soup

Butternut Turkey Bake

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

The Squash Court

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Chocolate Pinwheels

Ham on Biscuits

This week, I decided it was time to try some squash since squash season is almost over and it would be hard to get a hold of them later on. This ended up being a good decision. Butternut squash was what we ended up needing and I had never worked with it before. I was familiar with it from watching Veggie Tales, but that didn't tell me how it would taste or how easy it would be to work with.

Before I got to find out, we made Southwestern Turkey Soup for Sunday dinner. I used chicken instead of turkey, which didn't effect things too much. It was still a southwestern soup.

I had to use chicken again instead of turkey for the Butternut Turkey Bake. However, this time no one knew because it was so delicious.

The butternut squash was just like a pumpkin--it was hard to cut open and took an hour of baking in the oven to soften up. But this bake tasted a lot like Thanksgiving and we argued over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Okay, I feel a little silly that I've never thought of twice-baked sweet potatoes before. I love sweet potatoes and I love twice-baked potatoes, and it's not a far leap to make. It was remarkable. So delicious. Basically the same recipe--bacon, cheese, butter, spices--but the sweet potatoes were so good, and the skins caramelized in the oven and might have been the best part.

The Squash Court was butternut squash creamy soup. The recipe called for me to peel and cube the squash, then cook it and puree it. That was a little too much work. Next time, I'll just stick it in the oven for 40 minutes and soften it, then scoop it into the blender after softening the rest of the ingredients. I don't often make creamy soups, (ha ha, I never make creamy soups. This was my first time making soup in a blender) but with some saltine crackers, everyone agreed it was delicious.

I was planning on making pumpkin ravioli this week, but I couldn't find baking pumpkins anywhere, not even for ready money. So I made chicken fettuccine alfredo instead. Only, I didn't have fettuccini, so I just used penne instead.

This was delicious and really easy, especially if you have chicken ready. I think I might have to start doing that, baking chicken, cubing and freezing it. This was a great recipe because it was a little spicy since there was chili flakes in the sauce. It definitely made it stand out among the pasta recipes.

Somewhere in the week, I made Pumpkin Mousse. It was tasty, but made way too much when I was already too full from tasty dinners. It seems like a light dessert, but it is really rich, and this is why it took over a week to eat just half of it. I did love the pumpkin flavor, though.

For Friday Game night, I made Chocolate Pinwheel cookies. The Husband thought they were delicious, and I have to agree. I was expecting them to be much more complicated and difficult then they were. Yes, they were a bit of work, but worth it.

We didn't have anyone for game night, which wasn't a surprise since we had to get up at 4 in the morning to take a trip to DC on Saturday. Since this was going to interfere with making breakfast, I made it Friday night and packed it up to eat on the road. I made Ham on Biscuits. My biscuits didn't rise as much as I hoped, but that was because I had to leave the dough at a crucial stage to go pick The Husband up from work. We've had a bit of car trouble lately that has complicated things. Be that as it may, they were still delicious.

I also made the pumpkin scones again because everyone loved them so much. And they were very good, only a little doughy this time.

Week 17: We vote yes!

Recipes to Go: 507 340

Weeks to Go: 52 35

Recipes Made this Week
Tomato Bacon Pie

Broccoli with Mustard Sauce

Candidate's Choice Short Ribs

Roasted Onion Salad

Voter's Favorite Float

Election Day Cookies

Bean and Pork Chop Bake

Old-Fashioned Dressing

Pot Roast with Gravy

Classic Carrot Cake

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

You'll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures this week. Apparently I gave up half-way through. Which, quite frankly, surprises me since every time I sit down to eat now I think, "I need to take a picture of this".

Anyway, I made the bacon pie on Sunday. It was good, but I've been having trouble recently getting my bacon to cook evenly.

When I put bacon in things, I don't want the fatty bits to be too chewy, but the meaty bits get perfect before the fatty bits do, so I had a bit of a rubbery problem in a few of my bites of this pie. That, and the greasiness of the leftovers aside, it was delicious. The Husband would, of course, argue with everything I'm saying, I'm sure, and claim it was heavenly. But that's just because the main ingredient is bacon. And he loves everything to do with bacon on principle.

To go with the bacon I made broccoli with mustard sauce. The Husband said when he tasted it, "this is exactly how I hoped it would taste." Apparently he had broccoli just like it at a fancy restaurant once and loved it. The rest of the family agreed. The Captain loved the sauce as all toddlers do with condiments. I'm pretty sure condiments are his favorite food.

Tuesday was Election Day. I hope everyone remembered to vote. I didn't get registered in VA in time, so I could not.

And just to rub it in, we did an election themed dinner featuring short ribs, floats and cookies.

The ribs were excellent. They took very little effort and were divine. So good, they made the picture fuzzy.

The salad to go with everything was good because it was based in roasted onions. I love roasted onions.

And the dressing to go with it had chili flakes in it so it had a nice kick.

I think next time I won't use a bagged

salad, though, because the radishes were just a bit much.

Why has it taken me so long to hear about this float? Seriously the easiest thing I've made, and you know I've made some easy stuff. Three ingredients: vanilla ice cream (had that leftover in the freezer), apple juice--just plan old simple breakfast drink apple juice, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on top. No carbonation, (which made me love it more) and yet so good. And apple juice is dirt cheap most of the time. I'm pretty sure I know what our leftover ice cream making experiments will be going in the future . . .

Now, to be honest, we still hadn't finished all the gingerbread cookies from Halloween, but I really wanted to make the election day cookies. So I only made half the recipe. And it was the best-tasting sugar cookie dough I've had in awhile. I didn't frost them, and they were still delicious, and we cut them out in elephant, donkey (well, horse, but who can tell?), and the continental U.S. shapes. And it only took 2 days for them to disappear. What can I say, I am a cookie monster at heart.

Remember how I said that I wasn't sure if I like pork chops? Well I adored everything about the Bean and Pork Chop Bake. The chops were amazing, and the beans were even better. That was because they had maple flavoring and apples in them, which though not traditional in baked beans were a wonderful flavor additive. It didn't even take too much effort to make. I guess this means I will have to start buying cans of baked beans since that's what made it so easy. If all pork chops tasted like this I wouldn't have trouble figuring out if I liked them.

The Old Fashioned Dressing . . . okay I'm normally not a fan of dressing. I think Stove Top is my least favorite part about Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday. And there's little I don't love about it, so that says a lot. I looked long and hard for a stuffing recipe I could stand behind for my Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast. And I found one that I want all the leftovers of. But this dressing was also delicious. And because it's made in the slow cooker, it was even better. I did use the leftover corn bread I had lying around, so that added to its yumminess. But I will make this again this winter. And it gave me the idea to use my slow cooker for my Feast to make life a little less stressful.

The pot roast was good. But then, when is a pot roast not? The only thing I will do differently next time is add carrots and potatoes to the pot. I had every intension of doing this, but just forgot when it came time to put things together. There was a lot of vinegar in the sauce for this, so it had a unique flavor that everyone seemed to enjoy. And there was plenty of gravy.

The classic carrot cake was great! I only used 3/4 the cream cheese to make the frosting and it was still the most delicious cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. And the cake stayed moist for a week. Well, okay, it probably would have stayed moist for a week, but it didn't make it that long, of course. We only had a few to game night and I sent them home with cake. I wanted to give them half, but The Husband convinced me not to, and I must say when I ate it for breakfast all week, I was grateful.

Last recipe of the week was the Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter. First of all, the butter. Cranberries, which I love, butter, and powdered sugar. Good idea. The scones themselves were perfect. Big, moist but not too much, wonderful flavor. I've already made them again, and because they take only 1/2 cup pumpkin, I can make batches all winter. And I plan to because The Captain, The Husband, and I couldn't get enough.

So, this week the votes were in and pretty much everything got at least two thumbs up. We were all spoiled with delicious food, and with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let's hope it continues.

Week 16: False! Black Beans

Recipes to Go: 507 351

Weeks to Go: 52 36

Recipes Made This Week

Balsamic-Glazed Tuna Steaks

Flavorful Rice Salad

Bacon 'n' Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

Chili for a Crowd

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Mother Lode Pretzels

Yeast Corn Bread Loaf

Fruit Smoothies

Caribbean Quesadillas

Spooky Spider Cake

Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice Muffins

Monster Cutout Cookies

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Since The Husband was out of town for most of this week, it was a bit challenging to get caught up on recipes. I spent Sunday and Monday trying to eat through leftovers. But the missionaries were coming to eat on Tuesday, so it gave me a perfect opportunity to make some food that I wouldn't have large quantities of. So I made 3 tuna steaks and 4 baked potatoes. After I put the potatoes in the oven, I thought things through and since I had to cut them in half to stuff them, I probably only should have made 2, but it was okay since we only ended up with one when dinner was over. And the missionaries took the leftover rice salad, which was so good I made it again on Thursday. They also helped me finish up the berry cheesecake pie.

Everything was delicious except that the fish was frozen when I started broiling it, so it need a few more minutes. It was still fine, just more pink than most people would like. Luckily, one of the sisters loved sushi, so she didn't mind. The other was very polite, so she didn't say anything, and still managed to eat it all. What a trooper. As for the potatoes, well who doesn't love twice baked potatoes? Who doesn't love bacon? How could that be a bad combination? I was lucky to be very successful when scooping them out. And mashing them with butter first made things much more smooth. Seriously, why have I never done that before? And the Beans and Rice Salad featured black beans, which ended up being the ingredient of the week.

Wednesday night was our church Halloween party. It was a soup and salad potluck, perfect opportunity to make a potluck recipe and the Chili for a Crowd sounded good. It also had black beans in it, though not as many. Confession, I didn't try this till after I got back home, but it was supposed to have 24 servings and there were maybe 3 left when I got back. I tried some when I was putting it away. It was definitely the best chili I've ever made. Nice and spicy, not too watery. I want to make it again.

There was a dessert competition at the party too. Apple or pumpkin desserts. Luckily for me, there are plenty of pumpkin desserts in the book. Luckily for me, I've made one of them before. So I made it again--Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle.

When I made it the first time, my friend was visiting me. We looked everywhere for canned pumpkin, but all we could find was yams. But even with lumpy sweet potato pudding it was delicious, and it was even better with smooth pumpkin pudding. So good was it, that I actually one in the pumpkin category. Amazing since I haven't won anything in ages.

Thursday I was planning on making the Yeast Corn Bread Loaf to go with all the leftover chili I imagined we would have. We didn't have much chili. In fact, we had surprisingly little food at all, which is why I made the salad again. The Husband got home late. I had dinner waiting, but while I was waiting for him, I decided to get started on the Mother Load Pretzels. I almost had the caramels melted when he got home. I didn't finish the pretzels that night. But I did make the Fruit Smoothies. They were delicious.

Friday didn't go so well for me. Car troubles, phone problems, then in the process of finishing the pretzels, I ruined one of my measuring cups and left a big mess in the microwave. But they turned out great.

Worth a few burned fingertips. They are highly addictive. Good thing I made so many. It's hard to pass by them without eating 1, or 3.

Better than that was the Caribbean Quesidillas.

The Husband thought there was meat in them, but they are vegetarian quesidillas. They tasted a little like fish, which we determined must have been due to the cloves. Anyway, they were delicious. They came together pretty easily as well. I always forget about quesidillas when I need to make a quick dinner, but I'll try to do better at remembering in the future because they are more fun than burritos. And did I mention, the main ingredient was black beans? These have sweet potatoes in them. I don't have enough recipes for sweet potatoes. And they are so tasty. Don't worry, there are plenty more in the book to come.

Game night treat this week was the Spooky Spider Cake. It was supposed to be a spider on a regular cake, but I just made the spider part.

It was just a cake mix, so I didn't enjoy the cake part very much. But the frosting was delicious. It got rave reviews from everyone else as well. It was fun to make legs out of licorice. Luckily for me, everyone ate most of the cake, so I didn't have to finish it myself.

Saturday morning I made the Pumpkin Muffins. I used wheat germ instead of wheat bran because I couldn't find it anywhere. I know, there are the opposite parts of the wheat, but it made the muffins hearty. And the chocolate chips made them sweet.

Then we went out all day and things got crazy. I made The Husband make the Monster Cutout Cookies for me with the intension of decorating them and distributing them to our neighbors. Well, they got made, but not decorated.

In fact, they didn't get out before Halloween. But at least they were delicious, so I'm sure that will be looked over. My decorating skills are sub-par at best, so let me just say that they are supposed to be moons, pumpkins, ghosts, and mummies.

For dinner on Saturday, I did the smart thing and put together a slow cooker recipe so we could trick or treat and have hot dinner waiting for us when we got back. I managed to put together the stuffed peppers before we left. The peppers I picked out were so big that I only had room for 5 in my slow cooker, but that was okay because they were big enough that all the stuffing fit in just 5 peppers. Oh, they were so tasty. Full of black beans and rice. So delicious I didn't get a picture.